Painting

For Cate McNider, drawing and painting came out of a need to communicate between the unconscious to the conscious mind; a buried treasure that could stay silent no more. Images and symbols presented themselves in dreams or during movement and bodywork experiences. The body was speaking — so she listened. The symbols became lines, became color, became shape and shade. Some paintings are surprises others are replications of what she has seen within.

She did not seek formal post-graduate training, but accepted informal studies with two painters; representational (David Olander) and abstract (Eliezer Parrilla) painters in Manhattan and in West Hurley, NY. She began on canvas, following her teachers, then because of typical NYC space limitations, she turned to making works on multi-media paper -- charcoal, pastel, watercolor, and oil stick. 

The conversation is with the unconscious -- cleaning out an infinite closet. Her extensive movement explorations and healing her spine for 44 years finds its way on the canvas in some of her earlier work. 

Often, she reports the images and feelings that arise while sitting in meditation; reporting her experience in color, shape and concept. Most spiritual experiences are difficult to define in words, so shape, color and concept lend themselves as close as possible in the reporting, however her poetry does attempt to express the concepts she encounters. 

Her work expresses the fundamentals of nature, exploring the experience of natural Law itself. For example: Transmitting narratives from night dreams, or replicating actual primordial wavelengths seen in her mind’s eye before her brain transforms them into what makes up this reality. 

She is documenting a self-realization process, in concept, color and line. She does her best to get out of the way, and allow IT show her what IT is.